The Red Dragon
by Acellan
Summary: Ryuu Uchiha, who is not a "real" Uchiha, is assigned to Narutos team. But Ryuu has a secret. Will she be able to overcome the feelings Naruto and Sakura have for her because of Sauske? Can she even be trusted?
1. Chapter 1: A New Teammate

Naruto was out in the practice fields sparring with Lee when Sakura found him. "Hey Naruto!" She called. "Tsunade wants to see us in her office so stop goofing around and get over here!"

Naruto rolled his eyes and yelled back, "Alright alright I'm coming sheash!" He turned to Lee who was standing there watching him with his usual weird expression. "Well, see ya later Bushy-brows." Naruto said.

Lee beamed and said "I will see you later Naruto!"

Naruto ran off after Sakura and soon they arrived outside Tsunade's office. Kakashi-sensei was there and he grinned and said, "Hey guys why don't we go in, we don't want to keep Lady Tsunade waiting do we?" Naruto and Sakura shook there heads and the trio entered Tsunade's office together. They lined up in front of Tsunade's desk and she looked at them and smiled. "Good you're here. I was thinking that you might like to have a more permanent addition to your team and I think I might have found just the person. Naruto, Sakura say hello to your new teammate Ryuu Uchiha."

A girl stepped out of the shadows. She was as tall as Naruto and had short black hair that looked as if she had cut it with a kunai. She wore her headband across her left eye like Kakashi did and wore her gloves the same way too. She wore a black long sleeved shirt with a loose green jacket over top and cargo pants. This together made her look more like a bandit than a ninja. Ryuu looked at their faces and sighed pushing her hair out of her face. "Yes I know its not normal but it's what I wear so don't look at me like I just escaped from jail." she said.

Kakashi smiled. _I think I'm going to like this kid._ he thought.

The next day Ryuu showed up at the bridge as Kakashi had asked. Sakura was there but Kakashi and Naruto apparently hadn't showed up yet. "Hey Sakura." Ryuu said.

Sakura gave her an odd look and, in a quiet voice, said "Hey Ryuu." She looked around for Kakashi and Naruto. _Where are they?_, she thought, _I don't want to be alone with her, she is related to Sauske. What am I supposed to say?_ When she looked back at Ryuu she had moved and was now leaning on the rail with her eyes closed and her head back the wind pushed her hair giving her a happy peaceful look. "What are you doing?" Sakura said.

Ryuu looked up "Listening." She said simply.

"To what?" Sakura asked, confused.

"The wind." Ryuu said looking up and smiling. Sakura smiled back and felt a little more comfortable around Ryuu. Just then Naruto showed up. "Hi." Ryuu said cheerfully. Naruto ignored her and leaned over the railing.

"Come on Naruto at least try to be nice." Sakura said. All Naruto did was go 'Humph' and ask where Kakashi was. Ryuu watched him sadly. _I know their last teammate's name was Sauske Uchiha, but we are barely related and I was hoping they would be ok, oh well, Sakura seems to be ok with me. _Ryuu thought watching Sakura lecture Naruto on being unnecessarily rude. She remembered Tsunade's warning.

_** "Ryuu, wait I want to talk to you." Ryuu stopped looking back at her . "I just wanted to warn you that your last name might be more trouble than anything else." she said. Ryuu had looked at her confused. "Their first teammate was Sauske Uchiha. Sakura might be ok but Naruto will be more closed." Tsunade finished. Ryuu nodded her understanding. "Well, at least Kakashi seems to think I'm alright." She said smiling. Tsunade smiled. "Yes. Between your attitude and the way you dress you won him over." Ryuu laughed saying. "Well that's a first."**_

_ Well, _Ryuu thought, _She warned me. I'll just have to show them how different I am from Sauske. Especially because he know I was in the village but never went past telling me that I was just some stupid wanderer. _Just then Kakashi turned up.

"Well today were going to do some training. Sakura, Naruto you know the rules. Why don't you explain them to Ryuu while we go." He said and walked off.

Sakura looked at Naruto who glared at Ryuu and followed Kakashi not bothering to explain. "Um ok then I'll explain I guess."

Ryuu grinned. "Let me guess it has something to do with those bells on him."

Sakura blinked surprised. 'Uh yea we have to get them and anyone who doesn't he will tie to one of the posts and they wont get lunch."

Ryuu grinned. "Sounds good, hey I might just have an idea on how to get them but you'll have to lay low while I work out the details. Um and can you try to get Naruto in on it too. I bet he would like to beat Kakashi fair and square."

Sakura grinned. "I'll try but there is only two bells. How are we all gonna get one?"

Ryuu winked with her good eye. "Oh you'll see."

"Well if you two are done chatting we'll will begin." Kakashi said. At that Sakura darted over to Naruto and tugged him away whispering in his ear. _**Hmmm… I wonder what they are up to.**_ Then he threw up a hand and caught the two kuni that Ryuu threw at him. "Really I thought you were smarter than that." He said blocking a kick. "You attack like Sauske did." HE said deflecting another blow.

Ryuu's eye flared. "I'm _nothing_ like Sauske." She snarled.

Kakashi didn't answer as Ryuu's blows sped up to a tempo even he had trouble keeping up with. Then unexpectedly she seemed disappear into the forest. "Nothing like Sauske huh. I wonder what that was about." He said.

Ryuu stopped next to Sakura in a nearby tree. "Alright here's the plan." Ryuu started.

"Why should we follow your plan?" Naruto asked grumpily.

"Just listen. If you don't like I can adjust it or whatever but just listen." She said Naruto hesitated but nodded. Ryuu grinned then started to lay out her plan.

"Alright you three. Where are you. Huh?" Kakashi said turning just is time to see Ryuu grab something from his pocket. "Hey what are you. Give that back!" He yelled as Ryuu ran off.

"Come and get it or I'll trade you It for those bells!" Ryuu called back.

_**Well then I guess I'll just have to catch her.**_ Kakashi thought taking off after the fleeing ninja.

_**Yes he fell for it.**_ Ryuu thought. _**I hope Sakura finished up those traps.**_ She sped up keeping just ahead of Kakashi.

_**"Damn she's fast.**_ Kakashi thought breaking into a clearing to find it empty except for his book lying at the base of a tree. "Well that doesn't look suspicious or anything." He muttered. "Wha!" He exclaimed as a rope snapped and he was forced to dodge a barrage of kuni and shurikin aimed exactly where he had landed.

_**Perfect. **_Ryuu thought grinning at Sakura's precision. Then she and a hundred shadows clones like her blasted out of hiding. She made the first hit but the other shadow cloned were slaughtered by Kakashi because they were slower. When he had beat them all she disappeared along with Kakashi's bells. "Huh…oh very well done Ryuu. But you don't know the Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu do you Ryuu." Kakashi said aloud.

"Nice job Naruto!" Ryuu said grinning.

"Yea whatever." Naruto muttered moodily

"Here Sakura, hang on to these." Ryuu said tossing the bells over to Sakura.

"But there are only two here." Sakura started to say.

"I know." Ryu said. "I made these while you were setting up the traps." Ryuu took out three bells identical to the two Sakura had. "I know Kakashi won't be fooled by the illusions on the acorns but since there are three of them they might confuse him." She finished her eyes twinkling mischievously. Naruto grinned _**Maybe this kid isn't so bad**_. He thought.

_** Oh there they are. I wonder who ended up with the bells.**_ Kakashi thought as he saw Team 6(?) appear from different places. "Well done now give me back the bells." He said holding out his hand. All three came forward grinning and dropped a bell into his hand. _**What!**_ he thought. "Very funny." He said allowed trying to figure out which one was fake. _**Wait a second they're all fake. Whoever made these knew I would assume only one is fake and tried to confuse me. I know neither Naruto or Sakura can even create this kind of illusion and wouldn't think to make three regardless so it must be….**_ Kakashi turned to look at Ryuu hiding his amazement with difficulty. _**Ryuu! **_He watched her wink at Sakura. Sakura pulled out two real bells from her pouch and hand them to him. "Well done, you all pass. But the bell joke wasn't needed." Kakashi said.

"Awww, you're no fun Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said pouting a little bit. He grinned at Ryuu and she winked at him. Sakura smiled and Kakashi sighed. "Well never mind then lets go eat lunch." Naruto cheered and Ryuu laughed at his antics. Sakura smiled sadly. "What's wrong Sakura?" Kakashi asked quietly. Sakura jumped, "Uh its just," she sighed, "I was so sure I wouldn't like Ryuu-chan it's odd thinking of her as a teammate you know. But at the same time, I'm glad, I have a feeling that she will help us out a lot in the future. And now we can really get used to one person's style." She finished more confidently.  
>Kakashi shook his head. "You've grown a lot Sakura." He said.<p>

"Hey Kakashi-sensei! Come on you owe us lunch!" Ryuu shouted to him waving at them with one hand. Kakashi smiled and nodded, he looked down at his the hand that held the fake bells. In their place were three acorns, as he looked at them one acorn that sat of the other side of his hand from the other ones rolled over to sit next to the other two.


	2. Chapter 2: A Simple Mission

"Your kidding, were going to hunt down a cat?" Naruto groaned.

"Stop whining Naruto, you've been begging for a mission for weeks!" Sakura admonished.

"Aww come on Sakura! Ryu thinks this is a stupid mission too!"

"Wow now, leave me out of this one!"

"Come on Ryu back me up."

"Well it does seem like a waste of time, why send ninja to find ca cat?"

"Never underestimate a cat Ryu." The three teammates jumped as Kakashi walked onto the bridge. Ryu frowned.

"Kakashi-sensei, if your going to set a meeting time at least show up when you tell us to!" Kakashi didn't answer and continued with his lecture.

"Cats can be very cunning creatures, but if you think it will be so easy why don't you try to catch it on your own?" Ryu grinned and nodded in agreement.

A few hours later they had located the cat. Kakashi turned to Ryu. "Well…." He trailed off as he realized that Ryu was no longer there. He turned as Naruto poked him in the side pointing. Ryu has circled around and has just emerged into the small clearing their quarry was in. She walked toward the cat until the it tensed then sat down next to the fallen log it was standing on. The log was big enough so that the cat was now eye level with Ryu. "What is she doing." Sakura asked watching as Ryu slowly raised one hand and held it out in an unthreatening gesture to the cat. Slowly the cat crept forward and Ryu began murmuring to it. A minute later the cat was curled up in her arms and she was heading back to Team 6.

"See not so hard." Ryu said quietly. "But the poor cat is injured so if Sakura would be so kind." Ryu held out the cat to Sakura and Sakura moved to take it. The cat tensed and Ryu crooned to it again. A few minutes later Sakura held the cat and was tending to its injuries. Kakashi sighed. _**This is **__**not**__** going to help me convince them about how this mission was in fact difficult. Damn it Tusnade, you couldn't just send some normal ninja kid could you? **_ Kakashi thought.

"Well then Ryu, would you care to share how you got the cat to trust you?" Kakashi asked resignedly.

Ryu shrugged. "Cats aren't unfriendly, just aloof. Most pet cats will use humans to get what they need so all I had to do was to show it that I meant it no harm. Besides I like cats." Ryu stated as if the last sentence explained everything. Kakashi blinked and thought. _**Well that explains a lot. Ryu is perceptive, that makes her a good choice to join a team that had lost a member. She probably is a good judge of character too boot. That is probably how she befriended Sakura and Naruto so quickly.**_

"Well then. Now we just have to return the cat to it's owner." Sakura said happily giving the cat back to Ryu. Ryu nodded and winced slightly as the cat clawed its way onto her shoulder. It perched their happily as the made their way back to Konaha.

A few hours later team 6 was on their way to deliver the cat. "So where is the village hidden in the rocks." Sakura asked.

Ryu glanced at her before answering, "It's up in the mountains. My question is how did this cat end up in Konaha, and why didn't they just come get it themselves. They have enough ninja, but they decided not to send one…" Ryu trailed off lapsing into thought.

Naruto grinned. "I just can't get over the cat, you look like Kiba Ryu."

Ryu looked down at the car that poked it's head out of her jacked. "Shut up Naruto." She said cheerfully. The cat looked at him and hissed. Ryu laughed as Naruto glared at the cat. Sakura laughed too thinking, _**I can't believe how much Naruto disliked her originally, from the way they act now you'd think that they were life long friends. It's actually kind of weird.**_

Suddenly all hell broke loose. Kuni and shurikin seemed to fly from the trees and the four ninja dodged rapidly. "What the hell!" Naruto yelled angry.

"Watch yourselves," Kakashi warned, "These are skilled ambushers."

Ryu glanced at him, "Really? I never would have guessed." She said sarcastically. Finally the barrage of shurikin and kuni stopped and for a moment silence permeated the forest. The two ninja emerged from the trees. One was female and was short and wore glasses, the other was male and was huge and had a scar that ran across his face. Ryu quickly covered her surprise with a blank expression. Unfortunately Naruto didn't have that kind of restraint. "Hey! What's the big idea!" He shouted angrily. Kakashi looked to the sky as the short ninja said, "We have come for that cat. Give it too us."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "If you want it you will have to claim it in the village hidden in the rocks. As that is where we were told to bring it."

"Well we're getting it early so fork it over." The big ninja snarled. The leaf ninja expressed their thoughts on that.

"Yea right." Naruto snorted.

"Well patients is a virtue." Ryu said mildly.

"Is that so?" Kakashi said in a curious tone. Suddenly the short ninja lunged at Ryu, only to find that she had vacated the spot in favor of another. The short ninja nodded, "Now I am sure, you are the dragon ninja, what are you doing on such a trivial mission?"

Ryu raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure I don't know what your talking about." She said in the same mild tone. Kakashi glanced at her surprise flickering across his face. _Ryu is the dragon ninja eh. Well that explains why Tsunade chose her._

The big ninja grinned viciously. "If she is the dragon ninja then we can't just let her go Marta."

Marta glanced at her counterpart, "I suppose not Tomaki." Ryu stood in front of them apparently relaxed. She extracted the cat from her shirt and handed his to Sakura. Then faced the enemy ninja. Tomaki charged her with a roar and tried to punch Ryu's stomach. He blinked in surprise as his punch came up an inch short. He attacked again only to find that all his attacks missed her by inches.

Sakura turned to Kakashi confused, "Kakashi-sensei, how come he keeps missing Ryu?"

Kakashi smiled, "Watch closely Sakura, I don't think he is just missing completely." Naruto scratched his head but watched as Tomaki attacked Ryu. After a few minutes Sakura saw what was happening. Kakashi smiled, "That's right Sakura, he isn't missing, Ryu is moving out of the way a little bit each time." Suddenly Tomaki snarled and pulled a club off his back.

Ryu raised an eyebrow, "A club, wow, that delicate." She mocked lightly.

Kakashi looked at the club and said, "Ryu don't take that club lightly its…" Tomaki swung the club, Ryu ducked and Kakashi yanked Naruto and Sakura out of the way. The club missed Ryu but the trees behind the rest of Team 6 exploded as if the club had hit them. "Like I was saying, it is a special weapon that allows its user to push their chakra to lengthen the strike."

Ryu glanced at her enraged opponent. "I should probably stop goofing around then.." She said lightly. Tomaki swung the club again but Ryu ducked the blow and darted behind him, a single blow to the head stunned him then Ryu flew back from a hit from Marta. She sat up rubbing her head, "Ouch.." She muttered. Naruto then decided to jump into the battle. Ryu glanced at him, "Take the big guy will you?" Naruto nodded and charged his opponent with his usual ferocity. Ryu faced Marta smiling lightly. "So you would like to fight the dragon ninja." She said mildly. Marta snarled a yes. With speed that could rival Kakshi's Ryu started a jutsu., "Dragon style, Fireball Jitsu!" She said putting one hand to her mouth. A huge fireball with more colors than Sakura knew were in a fire flew at Marta. _**Holy cow! That's a lot of flames. **_ Sakura thought, unfortunately they also missed. Ryu made another hand sign and all the flames went out. She flexed her left hand absently. "Well well. Looks like somebody did their homework." In the center of where the flames struck a mound of earth covered the enemy ninja. For no reason Sakura could see Ryu lunged at her. Both girls flew sideways as the ground under Sakura's feet exploded. Marta stood there smiling, "You are truly as great as I was told." Ryu gritted her teeth and muttered, "I'm gonna find whoever told her this and I'm gonna strangle him!" Kakashi looked at her, "Yes, well, shouldn't you finish this first." In answer Ryu launched herself at her opponent. "Help Naruto would you….If this bitch wants to fight the Dragon Ninja fine, I'll really fight her, give me sixty seconds." Kakashi nodded and moved to help Naruto. Ryu launched a series of attacks that left Marta surprised. Ryu landed for a moment, "Dragon style, Phoenix fire jitsu!" A bird erupted from Ryu's hands and flew at Marta, she dodged but it came back around. Then she ducked as Ryu lashed out with one foot. _**Oh I get it, **_Sakura thought, _**Ryu can still move and control her jitsu but her hands have to stay in that position **_The battle continued, Ryu using a combination of attacks. Abruptly she released the phoenix, "To hell with you!" She shouted exasperated and punched the stunned ninja in the face. Marta flew backwards and landed in a heap a few meters away, she got to her feet only the leap out of the way of another fireball. Ryu blinked surprised as Sakura followed up with a blow that knocked the ninja out cold. "Note to self: Don't make Sakura angry…" Ryu muttered to herself. Sakura walked back over and handed the cat back to Ryu, the animal climbed back into Ryu's jacket and poked it's head back out and began complaining at her. "Quiet you." She said scratching the cat's head. It switched to purring and rubbing against her hand. Sakura shook her head.

"Hey!" Naruto called, "Took you long enough!"

Ryu stuck out her tongue, "She wouldn't hold still!" She shouted back. She looked around, the destruction in the clearing was amazing for such a short battle. The rest of the team laughed and Ryu grinned happily. "Can we move on now? This cat won't shut up." Sakura rolled her eyes but they took off in moments.

After they had covered a lot of ground and Kakashi called a halt Naruto looked at Ryu. "Hey Ryu, why did those two call you the Dragon Ninja?"

Ryu sighed and shifted slightly, "The style of fire jitsu I use was passed down by my family, it works with most other fire type jitsu and it called the Dragon Style. Unfortunately a ninja a fought decided to call me the Dragon Ninja, on top of that the name stuck. As Kakashi-sensei knows, a name makes you something of a prize. If somebody killed say…..Lee, no offense to him, vs. me or Kakshi. Which sounds more impressive. 'I killed Lee' or 'I killed the Dragon/Copy Ninja'"

Naruto nodded and they went to sleep.

The next afternoon they finally arrived at their destination. They wandered aimlessly through the streets until they found the appointed place to drop off the cat. Ryuu hauled the cat out of her jacket and looked around, "Well, who's cat is this anyway."

"Silky!" A child's voice said and a small boy ran up to Ryuu and reached for the cat. Sakura recognized the boy from a picture (which incidentally neither Ryuu nor Naruto had looked at)and took the cat from Ryuu and handed him to the boy. "There you go." Kakashi talked to the boy's father while Ryuu complained she was hungry. Naruto groaned, when Kakashi had taken them out for lunch Ryuu had eaten a ridiculous amount. "Come on Ryuu, after all you put away this morning? How can you possibly be hungry?" Ryuu shrugged and repeated her statement but stopped halfway through as Naruto lunged forward and deflected a shuriken thrown at the boy. Ryuu turned and scanned the rooftops where the shuriken had come from. "Naruto!" She called pointing then took off after the ninja. Kakashi turned to the boy's father. "I think you better explain what is going on here." He said quietly. The boy's father hesitated then nodded.

Meanwhile Ryuu and Naruto were hot in pursuit of the ninja. "Naruto go left! They split up!" Ryuu shouted rocketing forward in pursuit of the faster ninja. As they reached an odd clearing the ninja stopped. "Well I'm not going to be able to outrun you it seems." He said his back to Ryuu. Ryuu didn't hesitate, she charged him trying to slide under his guard and score a hit. "Well that's not very nice." The man said dodging her blow and turning to face her, an odd black tinted armor covered his face. Ryuu smiled grimly "I'm a ninja, nice isn't in the job description." The man laughed hollowly. "Well, well, now that I get a good look at you I see you're the Dragon Ninja. That won't do at all. We needed more time to prefect our union so you wouldn't be able to fight back." Ryuu frowned, "What?" The dodged back a faction of an inch so the man's fist sailed harmlessly past. He continued to attack her ineffectually. Gradually she felt him tire and grinned. Suddenly pain lanced through Ryuu's left eye and she gasped in pain. Then went flying as the man hit her solidly in the stomach. Ryuu lurched back to her feet one hand on her eye. "Aww, what's wrong. Is your dragon giving you trouble. Mine never does that. Then again, yours isn't the same as mine is Light Dragon always makes things more difficult for its vessel than the Dark Dragon." Ryuu stared at him, "No, you can't be… It's not possible." The man laughed as another spasm of pain flowed from Ryuu's eye. He made a sign and held one palm toward her saying "Black Dragon Tornado Jitsu!" A spinning tornado of dark chakra Ryu lunged to her right but not fast enough. The attack caught her leg and flung her into a cliff that had been hidden by the trees. The man laughed again and moved to view his handy work. "First Dragon Seal Release!" Ryuu's voice shouted she staggered to her feet her injured leg barely holding her weight. Wincing at the pain in both her eye and her leg she held out her left hand concentrating her chakra to it. She felt the Dragon Chakra join hers and made the change to fire. "Claw of the Fire Dragon!" She cried swiping at her enemy. He leapt back grinning Ryuu smirked, the fire seemed to grow from just encompassing her hand to a huge claw of firey chakra. It slammed into the man and took out a big chunk of the forest. When the smoke cleared the man was gone. Ryuu swore and made a handsign. "First Dragon Seal Activate." She said wearily. The pain in her eye had faded and didn't twinge as the Seal settled into place. The Ryuu collapsed to one side as pain blazed though her leg, with out the dragon chakra supporting it the wounds were too deep for it to be able to take her weight. Ryuu felt herself tip to oneside then stop as someone caught her. "Wow, you alright?" Naruto asked as he caught her weight and steadied her. Ryuu gave him a sardonic grin, "That depends, what's your definition of 'alright'?" Naruto looked down at Ryuu's leg. Her pantleg from the knee down was gone, the leg looked like it had been shredded, blood slipped from her wounds to coat her shoe. "Come on, let's get you back to Sakura." He said creating a Shadow Clone to take her other side. Ryuu didn't protest and they moved as quickly as they could.


End file.
